Bottle carrying carton



Oct. $1943.

A. ous

' BOTTLE CARRYING CARTON Filed Marph 9, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 x H w A Patented Oct. 5, 1943 -UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BOTTLE CARRYING CARTON Arthur Rous, New York, N. Y.

Application March 9, 1942, Serial No. 433,935

2 Claims.

The object of th present invention is to provide a bottle carrier of cardboard or the like, formed of a unitary sheet and adapted to carry a row of bottles at each side of a handle assembly. The characteristic of the invention is that at each end of the carrier the construction is such that when the end bottles are loaded two mutually connected flaps of peculiar form are swung down to serve as separation and cushioning members for the end bottles themselves and as shield and protection members for the bottles at each end of the carrier. A plurality of the carriers may therefore be shipped end to end with full protection. against breakage by the contact of the end bottles of one carrier with the end bottles of an adjacent carrier; also, the bottlesrare better held.

The invention will be described with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view, partly broken away, illustrating the blank from which the carton is formed.

Figure 2 is a view in elevation taken at the side of the carton or carrier, the bottles being indicated by dotted lines.

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, but in end elevation. g

Figure 4 is a perspective view of th formed carrier.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary end perspective view, showing the bottle protecting end of the flaps partially moved downward relatively to the openings from which they are cut.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary horizontal section on the line 6-6, Figure 3, the bottles being spaced to a greater extent than normally, for clarity of illustration.

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings, I have therein shown a blank formed of a single sheet of cardboard or other adaptable material. Between the fold lines I an area is provided for the bottom or base of the carrier, which bottom or base is generally indicated by the numeral 2. The base may be provided with a longitudinal fold line at a. At each end of the carrier is a handle panel 3 provided with a hand opening at 4.

Each handle panel 3 is provided with a separation flap 31: for the center bottles, as when the carrier is designed for holding three bottles at each side of the handle panel. This separation flap 3m, in each case, is taken out of the aperture for the center bottles. At each side of the aperture an area is cut and scored to form a separation flap 5 to lie intermediate each end bottle and the center bottle and these flaps are adapted to Told on the score lines I) and c.

Opposite each flap 5 is the end bottle separating and shield flap 6, which is cut partly from the end bottle receiving opening, in each case, and partly from the appropriate handle panel 3. The area cut from the handle panel is, in the embodiment illustrated, a pointed member 690 which extends beyond the main body of the flap in two directions. Transversely of each flap 6, the latter is preferably formed with lines of scoring d so that the flap may assume the curvature of a bottle wall.

Intermediate the bottom 2 and the area in whichthe bottle receiving apertures are out are side walls I, and the ends of the connecting strips 8 between the side walls and the handle panel 3 are scored to permit folding in a manner similar to the scored line b..:"

In practice the two handle panels 3 will be secured to each other, as by glue or staples and the carrier when formed will have the appearance of Figure 3,'except that the end flaps 6, 69: I

will lie in position as shown in Figure 1. When the bottles are inserted in the ends of the carrier they will move the end flap 6 downwardly to the position of Figure 4, the end flap 6 moved downwardly slightly as being illustrated in Figure 5. By reason of the scoring at d the end flaps will automatically conform'to the shape of the bottles, as indicated in Figure 6 and the flap extension 61: will lie between the two bottles at each end of the carrier whereas the major area of the joined end flaps will lie across the outer exposed end bottles.

It will be understood that, various modifications maybe made in the form and arrangement of the elements illustrated in the drawings, Without departing from the spirit of the invention. Thus, it will not always be essential to employ the end flap extension 61: nor their pointed lateral extensions or ends.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

' 1. A bottle carrying carton comprising a unitary sheet of foldable material having a bottom wall, side walls and a -tw0 ply handle panel assembly, an area of the sheet ateach side of the handle panel construction being cut and scored to provide atop portion having a central bottle receiving aperture and an outermost aperture at each side of said central aperture, outermost webs in said top portion connecting the side walls to the handle panel assembly, each of the said webs being adjacent one of said outermost apertures for receiving a bottle at an end of the carrier, each web having hinged thereto at its inner margin on a line substantially parallel to the edge of the blank a curved bottle protection flap constituted in part from an area partially cut from the sheet to form one of the-outermost bottle receiving apertures, both of said flaps at each end of the carrier being swung downwardly about their hinge lines toward the bottom wall in the erected position of the carrier and secured together at their inner margins to form a V-shaped structure extending both transversely and longitudinally of the carrier intermediate its side walls and above its bottom wall. 

